CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO THE NACS COVER PAGE

CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO THE MAIN NACS INDEX PAGE

NOTES TO TABLES 25 AND 26

Table 25 shows the distribution among areas of aerial combat by Navy and Marine aircraft, for the entire war. Table 26 gives the monthly record for the four major areas where the greatest destruction of enemy planes took place.

The area in which Naval aircraft destroyed the largest number of enemy aircraft was the Philippines – 1,721 in air combat, 1,702 on the ground. Nearly all of this was accomplished the last four months of 1944 and January 1945, 1,073 in October alone, 833 in September, 770 in November.

Second in importance were the Japanese home islands taken as a whole. In Japan the destruction was primarily of grounded aircraft, the bulk of which (1,102, plus 120 in air combat) were destroyed in the concluding carrier campaign of July and August 1945. The greatest enemy losses in aerial combat (420) were sustained in the February carrier raids on the Tokyo area; during the same month 228 grounded planes were also destroyed, for a total of 648. The remainder of the total of 2,831 planes was accounted for in the four intervening months, March-June 1945.

The area of third importance was the Ryukyus, where destruction was accomplished largely in air combat. Here too the results (1,871 in air combat, 509 on the ground) were largely accomplished in a very few months, the bulk in the one month of April 1945, when 1,337 planes were destroyed in this area alone, and May 1945, when 466 were accounted for.

In all the above areas carrier aircraft were the primary agent of destruction, of grounded aircraft bulked high in the total, and the campaigns were short. In the fourth-ranking area, the Solomons and Bismarcks, land-based aircraft accounted for 1,988 of the 2,520 planes destroyed, all but 192 were destroyed in air combat, and the active air campaign lasted 20 months. It was also the most expensive campaign for the Navy, in terms of air combat losses.

The Japs had a number of bad months in the Solomons and Bismarcks, but their worst three, from the standpoint of planes lost, were January 1944 (406 lost to the Navy, largely in raids on Rabaul), November 1943 (246 lost between Rabaul and Bougainville), and October 1942 (295 losses near Guadalcanal and Santa Cruz). Other particularly bad months for the Japs were June and July 1943 (the New Georgia campaign), and August 1942 (the initial invasion of Guadalcanal, and the Battle of the Eastern Solomons). In all of these peak months except June-July 1943 our carrier forces helped increase the total destruction.

In three other areas was the destruction of Japanese aircraft sufficiently high to warrant special notice. These were: (1) Formosa, where 477 were downed in air combat and 527 destroyed on the ground, almost entirely by carrier planes in October 1944 and January 1945; (2) the Marianas, where 751 were destroyed in air and 219 on ground, also almost entirely by carrier planes and largely in the one month of June 1944; and (3) the Bonins, where 430 Jap planes were accounted for, principally in three brief carrier raids in June-July 1944.

Over three hundred planes were destroyed in each of two other areas, the Marshalls and the Eastern Carolines, over two hundred in the Midway area and the Western Carolines, over a hundred in New Guinea and Indo China.

TABLE 25. OWN SORTIES AND COMBAT LOSSES, AERIAL COMBAT DATA, AND ENEMY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED ON GROUND, BY AREA, FOR ENTIRE WAR
CARRIER-BASED
BASE, AREA OF TARGET OR ENGAGEMENT	ACTION SORTIES	SORTIES ENGAGING ENEMY AIRCRAFT	ENEMY AIRCRAFT ENGAGED		ENEMY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED IN COMBAT		ENEMY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED ON GROUND	OWN LOSSES
BASE, AREA OF TARGET OR ENGAGEMENT	ACTION SORTIES	SORTIES ENGAGING ENEMY AIRCRAFT	Bombers	Fighters	Bombers	Fighters	ENEMY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED ON GROUND	To Enemy A/A	To Enemy A/C
Hokkaido, No. Honshu	2,350	4	2	0	1	0	79	32	0
Tokyo Area	7,889	1,002	95	1,191	68	410	965	76	40
Central Honshu	3,381	220	35	146	32	47	301	70	5
Kyushu, Kure Area	6,891	681	65	862	48	348	471	130	40
Ryukyus	37,421	1,612	684	1,259	581	780	491	236	25
Formosa	5,727	641	207	589	157	300	521	80	26
Central & South China	843	44	9	39	8	17	3	28	4
Indo China	910	32	5	13	4	10	97	17	0
Bonins	7,502	242	39	334	27	205	167	87	22
Marianas	18,747	988	480	1,012	263	478	217	141	45
Western Carolines	10,234	157	26	184	22	92	99	64	7
Eastern Carolines	3,744	276	33	322	21	135	167	38	8
Marshalls	6,812	149	32	187	27	102	162	27	9
Gilberts, Nauru	2,140	97	42	35	23	22	25	10	3
Wake, Marcus	2,794	89	17	82	9	34	36	23	1
Midway Area	387	147	71	226	36	36	140	20	42
Philippines	22,323	2,471	587	2,459	387	1,235	1,590	278	77
New Guinea, Halmahera	3,063	84	29	15	23	9	133	11	0
Celebes, Borneo	116	0	0	0	0	0	28	1	0
Sumatra, Java	117	13	4	1	4	1	41	3	0
Bismarcks, Solomons	2,533	819	494	787	247	202	91	19	97
Aleutians	86	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Europe, Africa	1,103	56	22	51	14	26	30	38	1
LAND-BASED
BASE, AREA OF TARGET OR ENGAGEMENT	ACTION SORTIES	SORTIES ENGAGING ENEMY AIRCRAFT	ENEMY AIRCRAFT ENGAGED		ENEMY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED IN COMBAT		ENEMY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED ON GROUND	OWN LOSSES
BASE, AREA OF TARGET OR ENGAGEMENT	ACTION SORTIES	SORTIES ENGAGING ENEMY AIRCRAFT	Bombers	Fighters	Bombers	Fighters	ENEMY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED ON GROUND	To Enemy A/A	To Enemy A/C
Tokyo, Central Honshu	314	43	9	86	4	19	2	8	3
Kyushu, Kure Area	1,108	60	5	81	4	27	5	10	4
Ryukyus	5,435	537	297	395	248	262	18	40	14
Formosa	260	32	20	35	10	10	6	4	0
Korea, North China	347	48	5	57	3	11	0	10	0
Central & South China	511	30	15	39	10	8	3	15	1
Indo China	290	33	12	59	10	14	11	6	1
Malay Peninsula	64	19	5	46	4	7	8	0	1
Bonins	272	61	17	66	9	13	9	11	1
Marianas	2,060	32	5	88	2	8	2	4	0
Western Carolines	11,456	23	6	30	5	3	11	39	0
Eastern Carolines	1,147	80	34	99	20	20	11	6	0
Marshalls	21,552	37	6	111	3	17	6	57	3
Gilberts, Nauru	444	16	11	28	2	2	0	3	1
Wake, Marcus	320	23	90	1	11	0	5	4	0
Midway Area	101	72	50	107	9	13	0	4	33
Philippines	26,959	167	33	180	24	75	112	66	18
New Guinea, Halmahera	233	20	14	17	8	8	0	3	3
Celebes, Borneo	728	47	30	71	5	10	18	5	6
Bismarcks, Solomons	62,628	3,014	861	5,129	364	1,513	101	241	343
Aleutians	114	23	3	26	0	2	0	5	11
Kuriles	583	37	1	75	1	2	1	7	5
Atlantic	58	28	86	5	2	0	0	3	9

TABLE 26. OWN SORTIES AND LOSSES, AERIAL COMBAT DATA, AND ENEMY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED ON GROUND, MONTHLY, IN MAJOR AREA CAMPAIGNS
A. SOLOMONS - BISMARCKS AREA
BASE, MONTH	ACTION SORTIES	SORTIES ENGAGING ENEMY AIRCRAFT	ENEMY AIRCRAFT ENGAGED		ENEMY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED IN COMBAT		ENEMY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED ON GROUND	OWN LOSSES ON ACTION SORTIES
BASE, MONTH	ACTION SORTIES	SORTIES ENGAGING ENEMY AIRCRAFT	Bombers	Fighters	Bombers	Fighters	ENEMY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED ON GROUND	To Enemy A/A	To Enemy A/C	Operational
LAND-BASED	62,622	3,013	860	5,129	364	1,513	101	241	348	179
Aug 1942	89	42	35	72	21	33	0	1	8	0
Sep 1942	506	186	271	198	74	37	1	2	18	5
Oct 1942	838	204	117	240	57	120	7	6	41	11
Nov 1942	606	92	59	135	22	55	0	8	21	7
Dec 1942	334	27	0	41	0	19	0	3	8	0
Jan 1943	394	54	8	109	4	50	4	4	15	1
Feb 1943	429	25	7	45	5	16	2	10	21	0
Mar 1943	353	4	1	17	0	1	0	0	2	4
Apr 1943	445	53	30	76	13	33	0	14	21	5
May 1943	451	20	4	25	0	15	0	3	5	6
Jun 1943	729	115	66	183	44	84	0	3	30	8
Jul 1943	3,119	260	95	577	36	150	3	7	38	8
Aug 1943	1,116	157	31	353	16	91	21	2	10	6
Sep 1943	1,609	213	35	380	13	91	9	10	22	12
Oct 1943	1,565	101	5	208	4	65	23	9	7	8
Nov 1943	2,772	125	63	158	36	52	1	13	11	10
Dec 1943	2,731	153	8	341	2	94	0	6	14	10
Jan 1944	3,048	704	7	1,273	4	360	17	16	39	18
Feb 1944	3,942	444	12	651	10	138	5	24	17	10
Mar 1944	5,630	18	2	20	2	6	3	19	0	3
Apr 1944	3,645	5	2	3	0	0	0	21	0	10
May 1944	3,087	4	0	5	0	1	2	20	0	3
June 1944	1,558	4	1	4	1	1	0	5	0	4
July 1944	2,763	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	0	4
August 1944	3,673	2	1	1	0	1	1	9	0	2
September 1944	3,738	0	0	0	0	0	1	10	0	8
October 1944	4,019	0	0	0	0	0	1	6	0	5
November 1944	3,593	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0	4
December 1944	1,173	1	0	13	0	0	0	0	0	2
Jan-Aug 1945	4,612	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5
CARRIER-BASED	2,545	819	494	790	247	204	21	17	96	46
February 1942	27	19	30	0	17	0	0	0	2	0
May 1942	332	133	37	141	24	42	21	1	21	11
August 1942	681	142	207	119	65	23	30	5	23	6
October 1942	287	116	90	138	48	42	21	1	20	19
November 1942	96	20	2	26	2	5	0	1	1	0
January 1943	78	15	23	0	11	0	0	0	0	0
February 1943	20	20	5	0	4	0	0	0	1	0
July 1943	7	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
November 1943	707	266	93	278	71	67	19	8	22	10
December 1943	103	12	4	0	3	0	0	1	0	0
January 1944	178	69	1	86	1	24	0	0	4	0
March 1944	25	4	0	2	0	1	0	0	0	0
April 1944	4	2	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
GRAND TOTAL	65,167	3,832	1,354	5,919	611	1,717	192	258	444	225
NOTE: Minor discrepancies between this and the preceding table result from ineradicable differences between machine tabulations and are too small to affect the usefulness of the data.

TABLE 26. OWN SORTIES AND LOSSES, AERIAL COMBAT DATA, AND ENEMY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED ON GROUND, MONTHLY, IN MAJOR AREA CAMPAIGNS
B. PHILIPPINES AREA
BASE, MONTH	ACTION SORTIES	SORTIES ENGAGING ENEMY AIRCRAFT	ENEMY AIRCRAFT ENGAGED		ENEMY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED IN COMBAT		ENEMY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED ON GROUND	OWN LOSSES ON ACTION SORTIES
BASE, MONTH	ACTION SORTIES	SORTIES ENGAGING ENEMY AIRCRAFT	Bombers	Fighters	Bombers	Fighters	ENEMY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED ON GROUND	To Enemy A/A	To Enemy A/C	Operational
CARRIER-BASED	22,328	2,471	592	2,499	385	1,234	1,590	279	77	242
September 1944	6,025	567	85	667	44	326	463	39	12	28
October 1944	6,584	1,012	382	1,076	237	513	296	112	49	112
November 1944	4,299	483	61	483	49	223	498	81	11	36
December 1944	2,062	154	31	114	25	86	230	28	2	27
January 1945	3,358	255	33	159	30	86	103	19	3	39
LAND-BASED	26,937	155	32	167	24	73	112	69	11	58
July 1944	3	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
August 1944	4	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
September 1944	37	5	5	0	4	0	7	0	0	0
October 1944	59	8	4	3	4	2	21	4	1	0
November 1944	58	11	0	21	0	4	10	1	2	0
December 1944	763	108	20	134	14	59	16	12	5	1
January 1945	1,347	10	1	7	0	7	20	9	0	9
February 1945	5,661	0	0	0	0	0	18	13	2	12
March 1945	5,734	2	0	1	0	1	13	10	0	13
April 1945	5,196	1	0	1	0	0	6	8	0	6
May 1945	3,909	1	0	0	0	0	1	7	0	2
June 1945	2,289	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	1	8
July 1945	1,567	7	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	7
August 1945	310	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
GRAND TOTAL	49,265	2,626	624	2,666	409	1,307	1,702	348	88	300
NOTE: Minor discrepancies between this and the preceding table result from ineradicable differences between machine tabulations and are too small to affect the usefulness of the data.

TABLE 26. OWN SORTIES AND LOSSES, AERIAL COMBAT DATA, AND ENEMY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED ON GROUND, MONTHLY, IN MAJOR AREA CAMPAIGNS
C. RYUKYUS AREA
BASE, MONTH	ACTION SORTIES	SORTIES ENGAGING ENEMY AIRCRAFT	ENEMY AIRCRAFT ENGAGED		ENEMY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED IN COMBAT		ENEMY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED ON GROUND	OWN LOSSES ON ACTION SORTIES
BASE, MONTH	ACTION SORTIES	SORTIES ENGAGING ENEMY AIRCRAFT	Bombers	Fighters	Bombers	Fighters	ENEMY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED ON GROUND	To Enemy A/A	To Enemy A/C	Operational
CARRIER-BASED	37,421	1,612	684	1,259	581	780	491	242	25	163
October 1944	1,543	87	72	58	52	25	88	10	2	6
January 1945	676	0	0	0	0	0	28	8	0	2
March 1945	7,866	136	84	56	58	38	106	61	2	50
April 1945	15,423	1,100	456	846	415	547	227	102	18	59
May 1945	7,081	257	68	278	52	160	29	44	3	34
June 1945	4,816	28	1	21	1	10	13	17	0	12
July 1945	16	4	3	0	3	0	0	0	0	0
LAND-BASED	5,435	531	297	395	248	262	18	46	14	26
January 1945	11	2	2	0	2	0	0	0	0	0
February 1945	31	5	5	1	4	1	0	1	0	1
March 1945	61	5	4	2	3	1	0	0	0	0
April 1945	846	151	117	82	100	46	2	8	5	7
May 1945	1,371	212	112	167	87	137	1	13	3	5
June 1945	2,021	149	46	140	42	74	2	15	5	11
July 1945	957	10	9	2	8	2	13	7	1	2
August 1945	137	3	2	1	2	1	0	2	0	0
GRAND TOTAL	42,856	2,149	981	1,654	829	1,042	509	288	39	189
NOTE: Minor discrepancies between this and the preceding table result from ineradicable differences between machine tabulations and are too small to affect the usefulness of the data.

TABLE 26. OWN SORTIES AND LOSSES, AERIAL COMBAT DATA, AND ENEMY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED ON GROUND, MONTHLY, IN MAJOR AREA CAMPAIGNS
D. JAPANESE HOME ISLANDS
BASE, AREA, MONTH (1945)	ACTION SORTIES	SORTIES ENGAGING ENEMY AIRCRAFT	ENEMY AIRCRAFT ENGAGED		ENEMY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED IN COMBAT		ENEMY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED ON GROUND	OWN LOSSES ON ACTION SORTIES
BASE, AREA, MONTH (1945)	ACTION SORTIES	SORTIES ENGAGING ENEMY AIRCRAFT	Bombers	Fighters	Bombers	Fighters	ENEMY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED ON GROUND	To Enemy A/A	To Enemy A/C	Operational
CARRIER-BASED	20,499	1,907	197	2,199	149	805	1,816	309	85	151
HOKKAIDO, NO. HONSHU	2,345	4	2	0	1	0	79	32	0	16
July	1,461	4	2	0	1	0	26	21	0	12
August	884	0	0	0	0	0	53	11	0	4
TOKYO AREA	7,889	1,002	95	1,191	68	410	965	76	43	47
February	2,226	886	61	1,118	42	371	203	22	36	19
March	7	7	4	0	2	0	0	0	0	0
July	2,675	15	2	15	1	8	210	27	3	15
August	2,981	94	28	58	23	31	552	27	4	13
CENTRAL HONSHU	3,381	220	35	146	32	47	301	71	5	24
February	265	44	4	58	2	5	25	3	2	8
March	428	111	21	21	20	4	43	2	0	3
May	23	2	0	2	0	2	0	0	0	0
July	2,550	59	10	45	10	19	228	66	3	13
August	115	4	0	20	0	7	5	0	0	0
KYUSHU, KURE AREA	6,884	681	65	862	48	348	471	130	37	64
February	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
March	2,615	373	36	497	24	191	220	46	30	35
April	611	85	18	112	16	71	77	25	0	3
May	1,754	104	9	135	7	57	93	18	2	1
June	431	85	1	93	0	10	53	7	4	10
July	1,463	26	0	25	0	19	28	34	1	15
August	8	8	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
LAND-BASED	1,434	103	14	167	8	46	7	18	6	12
TOKYO, CENTRAL HONSHU	326	43	9	86	4	19	2	8	3	0
March	22	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0
April	27	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
May	76	17	7	24	4	5	1	5	1	0
June	73	13	2	32	0	8	0	1	0	0
July	90	5	0	6	0	0	0	0	1	0
August	38	8	0	24	0	6	1	0	1	0
KYUSHU, KURE AREA	1,108	60	5	81	4	27	5	10	3	12
March	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
April	59	3	0	2	0	1	5	0	0	0
May	50	16	1	32	1	11	0	1	2	0
June	199	23	2	14	1	5	0	2	0	2
July	577	18	2	33	2	10	0	6	1	8
August	219	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	2
GRAND TOTAL	21,933	2,010	211	2,366	157	851	1,823	327	91	163
NOTE: Minor discrepancies between this and the preceding table result from ineradicable differences between machine tabulations and are too small to affect the usefulness of the data.

CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO THE NACS COVER PAGE

CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO THE MAIN NACS INDEX PAGE

TABLE 25. OWN SORTIES AND COMBAT LOSSES, AERIAL COMBAT DATA, AND ENEMY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED ON GROUND, BY AREA, FOR ENTIRE WAR

TABLE 26. OWN SORTIES AND LOSSES, AERIAL COMBAT DATA, AND ENEMY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED ON GROUND, MONTHLY, IN MAJOR AREA CAMPAIGNS

TABLE 26. OWN SORTIES AND LOSSES, AERIAL COMBAT DATA, AND ENEMY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED ON GROUND, MONTHLY, IN MAJOR AREA CAMPAIGNS

TABLE 26. OWN SORTIES AND LOSSES, AERIAL COMBAT DATA, AND ENEMY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED ON GROUND, MONTHLY, IN MAJOR AREA CAMPAIGNS

TABLE 26. OWN SORTIES AND LOSSES, AERIAL COMBAT DATA, AND ENEMY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED ON GROUND, MONTHLY, IN MAJOR AREA CAMPAIGNS